Many people today find it necessary to carry a variety of plastic cards in order to funciton efficiently including credit cards, a driver's licence, membership cards to various organizations, and other cards containing personal data. Numerous methods and devices have been developed to hold and organize these plastic cards in wallets and purses including plastic pockets and pocket areas in a wallet or purse. Other devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,416,586 to Voss which describes a money or card-carrying device with a hinge and wire clips for holding items and U.S. Pat. No. 2,137,429 also to Voss which discloses a money or card holder comprising a helical spring where items to be held are inserted between the coils of the spring. With the prior art devices, it is often difficult to locate a card quickly.
The present invention is a card-holding device comprising a hinge member having a plurality of grasping members rotatably mount along the length of the hinge member, each of said grasping members having a hinge mounting portion and a pair of spaced, opposed gripping arms separated by a distance less than the thickness of an appropriate card, said gripping arms being sufficiently flexible to allow the edge of a card to be inserted between the arms whereupon the arms exert a clamping force to grasp and hold the card firmly in place.
In another embodiment, the present invention comprises a hinge member with an attached C-shaped holding portion rotatable about the axis of the hinge having a continuous groove formed about the inner perimeter of the C whereby a plurality of cards can be slid into said groove such that the cards are held along three edges.
The present invention holds plastic or other cards securely and so that they can be easily inspected and selected for use.
The various embodiments of the present invention find particular application in organizing plastic or other cards in a wallet, billfold or purse, but may also be used in briefcases or attached to a car visor.